School of Music, Theatre and Dance

Working in the Arts: SMTD Alumni News, July 2018

icon of a calendarJuly 23, 2018

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Working in the Arts: SMTD Alumni News, July 2018
Lauren Knox
Lauren Knox (BFA '12) is currently performing as Evelyn in the Purple Rose Theatre Company’s production of Willow Run.

Lauren Knox (BFA ‘12) was on the cover of the June 21 edition of the Detroit Free Press Play section. She is currently performing as Evelyn in the Purple Rose Theatre Company’s production of Willow Run, which runs until Sept. 1. You can view the article on freep.com.

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Joel Hunter


Joel Hunter
(BFA '18), Brian Baylor (BFA '17) and Stephanie Sambrano (BFA '17) are spending their summer performing with Festival 56 in Princeton, Ill. The summer season includes A Midsummer Night's Dream, Peter and the Starcatcher and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. "I'm so excited to work on four terrific shows this summer alongside fellow alumni, and I know OU has given me the resources and training to approach each of these works as an intelligent and confident professional,” Hunter said.

Chris Rozanski (BFA ‘09) played Buck Wiley (also Huey’s understudy) in Memphis the Musical at The Gateway in Bellport, New York on Long Island. The musical, inspired by the underground dance clubs of 1950’s Memphis, Tenn., runs through July 21.

Oakland University alumna Dolores Catherino (BM ’86) was awarded an $18,000 music composition fellowship from the Anchorage, Alaska-based Rasmuson Foundation. She plans to use the funding to create and document a major musical work that integrates acoustic and electronic instruments within what she has termed “polychromatic musical language,” a system she developed which uses “pitch-colors” to unify and simplify the use of all micro-pitch scales.

“In an era of musician-less electronic dance music and hip-hop, I hope to be able to inspire the next generation of musicians to explore far beyond the chromatic conventions of the 20th century by encouraging them to see the rapid development of complex technology as an opportunity expand our musical languages, rather than the current trend of using it to replace human musicians, songwriters and composers,” Catherino said.

Dcappella On Idol
DCappella on American Idol

DCappella, which includes SMTD alum Joe Santoni (BA ‘14), had its debut performance on American Idol on April 29. “The feeling of going out there is insane," said Santoni, who was featured in a May 9 article in The Times Herald. "It's mind-blowing. As soon as you have that signature American Idol chrome mic in your hand, it hits you." DCappella is a seven-member group that sings classic and current Disney songs, and is scheduled to release a debut album later this year. Santoni, who earned a BA in music, now sings bass in the group.

Chelsea Criger (BFA '18, theatre technology and design) is working with the Lexington Children’s Theatre in Lexington, Ky. for their 2018-19 season as a scenic art intern. She will also be freelancing her personal artwork on the side. You can keep up with that on her Instagram account @cncrigerart and on her website at cncriger.com.

AlissaBeth Jane Morton (BFA '18) choreographed for Peanut Gallery Players productions of The Jungle Book, Bugsy Malone Jr. and Legally Blonde Jr. and worked at the Farmers Alley Theatre in Kalamazoo, Mich. She was cast in the Tony Award-winning production of The Producers (featuring original costumes by William Ivey Long and original choreography by Susan Stroman) as dance ensemble, the cover (understudy to Ulla) and the dance captain to Bill Burns (guest director). The show opened July 20. For more information, visit www.farmersalleytheatre.com.

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Alexis Clark

Alexis Clark (BA ‘18) played Phoebe in Shakespeare’s As You Like It at Little Door Theatre in Warren through June 24. After that, she began an apprenticeship with Tipping Point Theatre in Northville for their 2018-19 season.

The June 2018 edition of the Downtown Rochester/Rochester Hills Magazine featured a profile of musician and OU alum Bob Milne. According to the article, Milne is “the only ragtime musician to be featured by the (U.S. Library of Congress) in the past half-century” and is referred to as a “national treasure” by the national library. “If you have been give a gift … it’s your duty to honor that gift by making it better each day, and never make another kid feel inferior because of your gift,” he said. The article can be found online at www.downtownpublications.com, on pages 16-17 of the Rochester/Rochester Hills edition.

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Anita Holsey-Banks

Anita Holsey-Banks (BA '18, theatre design and technology) was recently hired with Royal Caribbean International as a lighting technician. She set sail around the first of July. “I was terrified applying for this job because I was going to be away from my friends, my family,” Holsey-Banks said. “But my TDT family said ‘see the world first and miss us later.’"

Lily Taleveski (BFA ‘18) played bridesmaid Ali in the Mason Street Warehouse production of Mamma Mia!, which ran through July 15 at the Saugatuck Center for the Arts. Directed and choreographed by Kurt Strum, and featuring current OU graduate student Jamie Reed as sound director, Mamma Mia! tells the story of Sophie, a bride-to-be trying to find her real father, and features 24 hit songs from the 1970s Swedish rock group ABBA. “The fun that ensues features feathers, flippers, acrobatics and infectious music that’s sure to get you singing and swaying,” wrote Kym Reinstadler, a reviewer for Encore MI. “By the last five minutes of the sold-out performance I attended, I could have counted the few people who remained seated. It felt like a dance party.”

AIMS
At the AIMS in Graz

Music alums Robert Skylis, Frank E. Pitts III and Rhys Burgess are in Austria at the AIMS in Graz, the leading summer music program in Europe. AIMS (American Institute of Musical Studies) is an intensive six-week program to prepare musicians for the next steps in their professional career. Singers and pianists study with an international faculty, while instrumentalists perform under leading European conductors.

Oakland University alumna AJ Sharp recently opened her own dance company, SHARP Dance Co., in New York. Sharp will also be returning to OU to be a guest artist during the winter semester. Originally from Garden City, Sharp graduated from Oakland University with a BFA in dance. She has had the pleasure of working with artists such as Alexandra Beller, The Creators Collective, Cora Dance, The Equus Projects, Doug Varone and Dancers, Tamika Daniels, Take Root, and The Median Movement. She was also chosen for Doug Varone’s Choreography Intensive in 2015, where she was mentored by Varone and presented a new work at 92 Y.

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Amber Cooper & Niki Rose

Music education alums Amber Cooper and Niki Rose joined Professor Deborah VanderLinde’s Teaching Music to Learners With Exceptionalities class to share strategies for musical and social inclusion in the classroom. Amber teaches in Birmingham and Niki teaches in South Lyon.

Ashley Ward (Robbins), who holds BM in Music Education and Vocal Performance and an MM in Choral Conducting from Oakland University, is the choral director at Walled Lake Northern High School. Her choir, the Walled Lake Northern Chamber Singers, has been selected to perform at the annual conference of ACDA-Michigan (American Choral Directors Association) in October 2018.

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